Hey Gang,

If you have been around me for any time at all then you know how important leadership is to me.  I believe what I heard John Maxwell say 20 years ago, “Everything rises and falls on leadership.”  I believe that goes for every area of life, especially the church.  For the church to succeed it must be lead well.  Whatever you are involved in must be lead well to succeed.  That includes your family, business, small group, and even yourself.  Yep, yourself.  You are the most important person you have to lead.  Bill Hybels calls it self-leadership; I call it self-discipline.  To do anything great you have to master yourself.  Let me give you a few tips:

1. Excommunicate your Excuses.  If you accept excuses you will never make an impact, especially for the Kingdom of God.  Eliminate excuses or you will allow failure every time. “Almost all of our faults are more pardonable than the methods we think of to hide them.”  I watch people give up on ministry, marriage, profession, and even life because they accepted excuses and believed lies.  We must press on – I bet walking up the hill carrying a cross after being baten was not easy.  Remember Jesus never gave up on us and we must except no excuse that allows up to give up either.

2. Eat your dessert last.  In other words don’t give out the rewards until the job is finished.  “Any business or industry that pays equal rewards to its goof-offs and its eager-beavers sooner or later will find itself with more goof-offs than eager-beavers.”  A story I read illustrates it well: “An older couple had been at a campground for a couple of days when a family arrived at the site next to them.  As soon as their S.U.V. came to a stop, the couple and their three kids piled out. One child hurriedly unloaded the ice chests, backpacks, and other items while the other two quickly put up the tents. the site was ready in fifteen minutes. The older couple was amazed. You folks sure do work great together.  You just need a system, replied the dad. Nobody goes to the bathroom until camp’s set up.”  Remember –  rewards after the job is finished.

3. Eye on the Prize.  You must stay focused on the results.  It blows my mind how many people say not to worry about the results.  “Just be faithful and don’t worry about the fruit.”  Somebody has missed a lot of the Words of Jesus. He cared about the fruit.  Many people I watch or lead complain about how hard the work is; they focus on the difficulty of the task not the discipline required to do the task.  Self-pity overrules self-discipline.  At this point the results will be out of reach and excuses will fly.  Focus on the task and the results of completing it.

Now let me ask you some questions:  Last week, how much time did you devote to disciplined activities?  How did you work on improving yourself?  Did you exercise?  In what areas did you show self-discipline?  Hard questions, I know.  King David, after a great sin, confessed it to the Lord in Ps. 51.  He knew his propensity toward sin so he asked the Lord in verse 12 to “Sustain me with a willing spirit.”   He asked the Lord to make him want to. It is a great prayer to pray.  Lord make me want to.  To make an impact for Jesus we must be self-disciplined.  How are you on a scale of 1 to 10?

Think about it,

Pastor